Red Bull is one of the sports investors to have expressed an interest in buying a franchise in R360, the revolutionary new global rugby union competition that it is claimed will launch next year.
A proposed grand prix-style travelling league featuring eight men’s franchises and a four-team women’s competition has been put together by a group including England World Cup winner Mark Tindall, former Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper and ex-Wasserman agent Mark Spoors in a direct threat to the sport’s established club and international model.
R360 is targeting franchise owners and investors in other sports rather than sovereign wealth funds to buy into the new league, although organisers are also expected to seek funding from private equity.
The R360 proposal may have come at a good time for Red Bull, which has been looking at diversifying into rugby for some time and is considering a takeover of cash-strapped Premiership club Newcastle Falcons, who as it stands will require a loan from the other top-flight clubs in order to be able to compete next season.
Red Bull is already a sporting powerhouse with the Austrian energy drink company’s investment creating the dominant team in Formula 1 over the last 15 years, with eight world drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles.
It has also funded investment in cycling, skiing, motocross and taken majority ownership of six football clubs including RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, as well as buying minority stakes in Leeds United and Paris FC.
Red Bull has previously signed individual rugby players such as Siya Kolisi, Mack Hansen and Jack Nowell as athlete ambassadors.
The Premier League has allocated a budget of around £3m for regulatory costs for next season ahead of the impending establishment of the Independent Football Regulator, with the bill reaching the Committee Stage yesterday.
Clubs agreed the budget last month ahead of this week’s Premier League AGM, which is expected to be dominated by discussions over financial and regulatory matters, with a proposal to close the loophole which has enabled Chelsea to book PSR profits by selling hotels and the club’s women’s team to a related company under consideration.
The Premier League lobbied unsuccessfully against the government’s creation of the IFR, but its budget indicates an acceptance that the bill will make the statute book despite the delay in ratifying the preferred candidate as chair, David Kogan.
In another indication of the focus on regulatory matters the Premier League appointed James Fredrickson, the beaten Conservative candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon in the 2019 General Election, as their new director of regulatory affairs.
Article courtesy of
Source link
